Political Quotes

“Dear Justice Sotomayor: I write to inquire about your decision to join Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion in the case of Graham v. Florida, No. 08-1224. In that case, a 5-4 majority of the Court ruled that sentencing a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole for a nonhomicide crime is unconstitutional. In Justice Kennedy's opinion, he employs a methodology similar to that used in Roper v. Simmons. In Roper and Graham, the majority relies on what five Justices perceive to be "evolving standards of decency" in concluding that the punishment in question violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In arriving at this conclusion, Justice Kennedy looked to both the sentencing practices of the states and the federal government and to the "judgments of other nations." Justice Kennedy's opinion in Graham, which you joined, states, "[the] global consensus against the sentencing practice in question" provides "support for our conclusion" that the punishment is unconstitutional.”